Vanilla company tests waters in US

Vanilla producer Reunion Food Company has sent its first products to United States as it continues to grow its export market.
A pallet of its branded Heilala Vanilla extract, syrup, paste and natural pods - totalling 1000 units - has gone to gourmet food and kitchenware company, NapaStyle, in California.
The 100 per cent pure vanilla products, processed in Te Puna, will be sold in three NapaStyle stores, as well as online and through mail order.
Another shipment of paste and pods will be sent to Portland in Oregon and supplied to 10 restaurants.
Jennifer Boggiss, who owns Reunion Food with her husband Garth and father John Ross, said they were close to signing a deal with a large retail chain in the United States.
"We've just appointed a sales manager (Ruby Grant) for our New Zealand market, and lots of things are happening," she said.
Reunion Food, established six years ago, was given a boost when its Heilala Vanilla paste won the gourmet section at the NZ Food Awards. The awards celebrate product innovation and creativity in the country.
The judges said the potential for this gourmet ingredient (Heilala Vanilla paste) in bakery, desserts and other dishes was due to its rich, delicate and intense vanilla flavour.
After extensive research and trialling, the paste was made by reintroducing vanilla seeds from pods into the extract and adding a natural seaweed thickener.
Reunion Food headed off 26 other products in the awards, and it was also a finalist in three other categories - packaging, small and medium enterprise, and other food and beverages - for its Heilala Vanilla paste and syrup.
"The award gives more credibility and confidence in what we are doing," said Mrs Boggiss. "We were up against established products, and we can use the win on our labelling as part of marketing."
Reunion Food is already exporting to Australia, Singapore and Malaysia - and recently made a sales drive by presenting to 30 chefs in Melbourne. They called the event the "Thriller in Vanilla". A Sydney distributor is also supplying 150 speciality food stores in New South Wales.
At home, Heilala Vanilla products will be sold in 132 New World stores from mid-January. They are also stocked by food and liquor distributor, Gilmours.
Reunion Food is just receiving its latest supply of dried vanilla beans from Tonga. It expects to process about 1.8 tonnes, up from 1.5 tonnes last year, and a far cry from the first harvest of 44kg in 2005.
"It will be enough for us to get through the next 12 months."
The best of the beans are sold as Heilala Vanilla pods and sent to restaurants. The chefs split the pods open and scrape out the seeds they call "vanilla caviar".
The remainder of the beans are processed into paste, extract, organic sugar, and a new product, vanilla syrup, which was launched in June.
The syrup has Heilala Vanilla extract as its foundation, and each bottle contains a whole vanilla pod to ensure the natural flavour continues to develop in the bottle.